Honda Fit EV Gets Chosen For Portland Zipcar Fleet

March 1st, 2013 by Zach

The highly efficient, 100% electric Honda Fit EV just recently made its debut on the U.S. East Coast. Now, news is that it has also made it into Zipcar’s Portland carsharing fleet.

Zipcar’s Honda Fit EVs, to start with, are only available Portland State University (PSU). They come with charging stations courtesy of ECOtality. Additionally, Zipcar customers can use ECOtality’s network of Blink charging stations in the Portland area.

Here are some more details from Zipcar for those of you in the Portland area:

The new Honda Fit EVs are located on PSU’s campus at Parking Structure 1, and are available to all Zipcar members ages 21+ for hourly reservations, starting from $10.25 per hour. Zipcar chose PSU for the location of its first EVs in Portland because of the University’s leadership in environmentally conscious innovations, including its Electric Avenue automotive charging stations on campus….

Each Zipcar Fit EV is outfitted with a Blink InCard, which provides complimentary access to Blink Network charging stations to charge up, similar to the way gas cards work in other Zipcar vehicles. To find Blink Network charging stations in the greater Portland area, please visit: http://www.blinknetwork.com/blinkMap.html….

Prior to reserving one of the Zipcar EVs, members will have the opportunity to learn more about driving electric vehicles through Zipcar’s member education program. Members can visit www.zipcar.com/portlandev to learn more about the electric vehicles, watch an instructional video, go through a quick orientation process and make a reservation.

Honda Fit EV via Honda

As previously reported here on EV Obsession, the Honda Fit EV is the most efficient car on the U.S. car market.

The Fit EV has a fuel efficiency of 118 MPGe. This is actually 3 MPGe lower than the Scion iQ EV. However, the Scion iQ EV isn’t yet for sale or lease for common citizens — it is available for urban and campus car-sharing programs.

The Fit EV has a driving range of 82 miles according to the EPA, and a “low energy-consumption rating” of 29 kWh/100 miles.

You can view more Honda Fit EV details here or on the Honda Fit EV site.

Zipcar was the first U.S. carsharing company, and the company notes that it was also “the first car sharing company in the United States to introduce electric vehicles, starting in Boston in 2002, and the first to offer hybrid vehicles through a partnership with Honda in Seattlein 2003.” The company currently includes 777,000 members and nearly 10,000 vehicles in the U.S., Canada, the UK, Spain, and Austria.

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Tags: honda fit ev, Portland, Zipcar, Zipcar Portland

About the Author

Zach is the director of CleanTechnica, the most popular cleantech-focused website in the world, and Planetsave, a world-leading green and science news site. He has been covering green news of various sorts since 2008, and he has been especially focused on solar energy, electric vehicles, and wind energy since 2009. Aside from his work on CleanTechnica and Planetsave, he's the founder and director of Solar Love, EV Obsession, and Bikocity. To connect with Zach on some of your favorite social networks, go to ZacharyShahan.com and click on the relevant buttons.